Microsoft building more Surfaces, selling at Staples, Best Buy [Updated]

Retail stores in the US and Australia will sell the tablets from mid-December.

Microsoft has announced that its Surface tablets will be available from more retailers within the next few days. Customers in the US and Australia will be able to buy Surfaces from non-Microsoft outlets from mid-December, with extended availability in other countries coming in the next few months. The first such retailer to be confirmed is Staples, and it will start selling Surfaces on December 12th.

Update: Now Best Buy has confirmed that it'll be selling the devices too. They'll be available online from the 12th, in-store from the 16th of December.

To meet demand for the devices, the company has also announced that it has ordered its manufacturing partners to increase production and build more units, contradicting reports last month that it had scaled back orders.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in November that the company planned to expand Surface's availability. These plans have been brought forward, with Steve Schueler, corporate vice president, Microsoft Retail Sales and Marketing, saying, "Our plan has been to expand the retail presence for Surface after the first of the year. Based on interest from retailers, we are giving them the option to carry Surface with Windows RT even earlier."

Microsoft is also expanding its own series of retail stores. The company opened a number of temporary stores on October 26th for the holiday season. All of these stores will be kept open into next year and a number of them will now be converted into permanent retail locations.

For those unaware, Staples is an office supply store. It seems a little surprising that the biggest electronics retailer in the US, Best Buy, isn't a premier partner.

Staples has been one of the most up-front supporters of Windows 8 I've seen yet. Its no wonder they're getting first dibs at Surface. They also have a tablet trade-up program, windows 8 training and offer other premium services that best buy et all have failed to advertise or implement thus far.

Staples has free data transfer, free training, free startup, free support and makes an obvious and welcome place to buy a surface - especially knowing they will probably do the out of box setup experience to validate hardware and walk customers through their purchase.

Smart move going with Staples and other office stores since the business crowd is the target.

Bestbuy is the last place I would shop. Walking into a Bestbuy feels like going to a sketchy website with pop ups and trick "download here" buttons. They ignore you if you don't look like you have money and no clue, then the check out wants you to sign up for spam and say no to 10 different sales pitches.

I still think surface 1 might be overpriced, because of the non-retina display, small amount of storage space and extra $110 for a colored keyboard, but maybe playing with one in person will change my mind.

I still think surface 1 might be overpriced, because of the non-retina display, small amount of storage space and extra $110 for a colored keyboard, but maybe playing with one in person will change my mind.

Don't be that guy, that lets marketing execs shape the way you evaluate your world. Definitely go see one, use it, see if it meets your needs.. don't look at arbitrary and ill-defined metrics for your decisions.

I still think surface 1 might be overpriced, because of the non-retina display, small amount of storage space and extra $110 for a colored keyboard, but maybe playing with one in person will change my mind.

The keyboard pricing is really harsh but the display is actually pretty good I think. It's clearly not a retina ipad (you will notice the difference), but it's still a nice screen - probably a tradeoff between resolution and power use (and the battery life/charging/heat etc headaches that leads to) .

I'm not really sure which set of trade-offs I prefer. I'd suggest the bigger issue is likely to be app availability. Tablets are still ipad first, everything else probably not later.

I still think surface 1 might be overpriced, because of the non-retina display, small amount of storage space and extra $110 for a colored keyboard, but maybe playing with one in person will change my mind.

Don't be that guy, that lets marketing execs shape the way you evaluate your world. Definitely go see one, use it, see if it meets your needs.. don't look at arbitrary and ill-defined metrics for your decisions.

The low resolution is a bit of a problem, it's not substantially better than the iPad 2 (which for me personally makes me wish I held out a year before buying, the screen is terrible to read on. Playing with a retina display made me sigh a lot in envy).

"Retina" is definitely marketing hype, but I have a huge love for high res displays. The 1366x768 standard for Windows devices (across tablets and laptops) really is too low, whether a 13" laptop or a 10" tablet.

It's also a premium device. While specs aren't everything, the fact that it gets whooped by the Nexus 10 (which also comes in at a lower price) makes it a hard purchase for me, simply from a longevity standpoint, better hardware plays better for longer. Same reason I haven't purchased a Lumia 920 or 8X yet, I see the Nexus 4 as the standard price I should pay. Microsoft needs to come a lot closer to those prices to justify themselves with an OS that hasn't exactly wowed the world.

I'm not all that surprised that staple is mentioned over bestbuy. If I absolutely need a stick of ram/hdd/cable now I can get it at staples in what always feels like a nicer store minus the problems others have mentioned with bestbuy. On top of that, Staples has a couple feathers in its cap that bestbuy does not.

Including the pro-staples examples people have given about training/services/promotion/etc at staples, I don't recall seeing a giant section of floorspace devoted to apple smacked down so you need to walk over the extra nice carpet/padding to get to the PC's the last time I was at staples.. I do recall seeing various new ereaders & tablets right out in front by the door for people to lookat/touch on their way to get anythingevery so often though.

If I want to print out a massive number of pages without draining my ink, I pass right by those things on my way to the friendly folks at staples. People go to staples because they need something that's often work/education related, if they see a surface on their way & decide it's for them, they won't be getting an apple employee talking them out of it.

The low resolution is a bit of a problem, it's not substantially better than the iPad 2 (which for me personally makes me wish I held out a year before buying, the screen is terrible to read on. Playing with a retina display made me sigh a lot in envy).

"Retina" is definitely marketing hype, but I have a huge love for high res displays. The 1366x768 standard for Windows devices (across tablets and laptops) really is too low, whether a 13" laptop or a 10" tablet.

It's also a premium device. While specs aren't everything, the fact that it gets whooped by the Nexus 10 (which also comes in at a lower price) makes it a hard purchase for me, simply from a longevity standpoint, better hardware plays better for longer. Same reason I haven't purchased a Lumia 920 or 8X yet, I see the Nexus 4 as the standard price I should pay. Microsoft needs to come a lot closer to those prices to justify themselves with an OS that hasn't exactly wowed the world.

I don't discount any of that, I just think the screen is better in use than in specification.. I have a lot of first-person experience with these panels

The lack of an included keyboard, especially the very nice Type Cover is a bigger problem than the lack of a high resolution display. The Surface is clearly designed by way of the kickstand to be used with a keyboard. A holiday sale that includes a free keyboard seems like an obvious means to generate interest in conjunction with a larger retail presence.

I think Microsoft could just solve any demand problems they have for surface by releasing their iOS Office product, and not slug it out in the hardware game with a behemoth that already dominates the market.

For those unaware, Staples is an office supply store. It seems a little surprising that the biggest electronics retailer in the US, Best Buy, isn't a premier partner.

Staples has been one of the most up-front supporters of Windows 8 I've seen yet. Its no wonder they're getting first dibs at Surface. They also have a tablet trade-up program, windows 8 training and offer other premium services that best buy et all have failed to advertise or implement thus far.

Staples has free data transfer, free training, free startup, free support and makes an obvious and welcome place to buy a surface - especially knowing they will probably do the out of box setup experience to validate hardware and walk customers through their purchase.

Are the activities mentioned in your last paragraph really necessary... I thought that one of the big advantages of a tablet over a PC is the intuitiveness and lack of complexity for the average user?

I think Microsoft could just solve any demand problems they have for surface by releasing their iOS Office product, and not slug it out in the hardware game with a behemoth that already dominates the market.

I think Microsoft could just solve any demand problems they have for surface by releasing their iOS Office product, and not slug it out in the hardware game with a behemoth that already dominates the market.

Really, what other compelling reasons were there to buy a Surface, other than having a tablet that ran MS Office?

Some of us want office, skydrive, Xbox music/video, homegroup support, usb support, WiFi printing, 16:9 video support, snap to multitasking, desktop support to do remote server administration through mmc console, fast rdp client and all the good software that is out or coming out. I love my surface!

if it was in the Zune family it might have had more brand recognition.

such as it is.

or was.

Why would you think that?

Was the Zune offered outside North America? Here in Australia, we never saw one as far as I recall. The name has zero brand recognition here, except amongst us tech enthusiasts (and that's not a positive).

Some of us want office, skydrive, Xbox music/video, homegroup support, usb support, WiFi printing, 16:9 video support, snap to multitasking, desktop support to do remote server administration through mmc console, fast rdp client and all the good software that is out or coming out. I love my surface!

This is an honest question: If you're getting a Surface that does all that, and presumably has a keyboard, why not get a small laptop instead? Is it just so that you can use it without the keyboard for recreation, or is there some use-case that I don't see here (very likely)?

Some of us want office, skydrive, Xbox music/video, homegroup support, usb support, WiFi printing, 16:9 video support, snap to multitasking, desktop support to do remote server administration through mmc console, fast rdp client and all the good software that is out or coming out. I love my surface!

This is an honest question: If you're getting a Surface that does all that, and presumably has a keyboard, why not get a small laptop instead? Is it just so that you can use it without the keyboard for recreation, or is there some use-case that I don't see here (very likely)?

Its lighter and more convenient, with better battery life. Been playing with a friend's Surface for two weeks while he's on vacation. I find the tablets I use at work to be frustrating now by comparison. Kills me that with all these high res displays, only MS seems to have bothered to implement side by side multitasking.

I think Microsoft could just solve any demand problems they have for surface by releasing their iOS Office product, and not slug it out in the hardware game with a behemoth that already dominates the market.

Really, what other compelling reasons were there to buy a Surface, other than having a tablet that ran MS Office?

I think that Microsoft would be very cautious on the subset of features that they make available to non Microsoft devices. It doesn't make sense to take away from one of RT's selling points with offering feature parity to competing OSes/devices.

staples ain't gonna save win8. every time i go there, it's deserted. you could hear an ant fart halfway across the store. only ever bother with the place if i need to buy a new wheelie chair or filing cabinet.

For those unaware, Staples is an office supply store. It seems a little surprising that the biggest electronics retailer in the US, Best Buy, isn't a premier partner.

Best Buy has just announced that they'll be selling online from the 12th, in-store from the 16th.

That makes a lot more sense. Despite recent troubles, Best Buy is still the largest electronics retailer in the US. Surface should have decent retail exposure for holdiday shopping in the US, if just barely in time. It will be interesting to see what impact that will have on US market share early next year.

Nice - I've been consistently impressed buying tech gear at Staples - the last three times I've gone looking they've had a computer that's a good fit for my specifications for at least 10% less money than the competition, and the service has been good.

I think Microsoft could just solve any demand problems they have for surface by releasing their iOS Office product, and not slug it out in the hardware game with a behemoth that already dominates the market.

Really, what other compelling reasons were there to buy a Surface, other than having a tablet that ran MS Office?

Well, I was thinking that one of these would be nice, when the FOSS crowd find a way to put Linux on it. But then the price was announced (way way too much, plus too much more for a keyboard) and I lost interest.

I found a used Thinkpad X61 (with dock) in excellent shape, for way less (~$200), and it dual-boots both Windows and Linux quite handily. Nor will I have to worry about the keyboard holding up to normal use. Finally, it won't give me any "Secure Boot" hassles either.

I can put an SSD in it, and buy a nexus tablet (for when I "really" need a "tablet", and still be crazy ahead.